Wisconsin's rising pedestrian deaths: 'We need people to wake up'

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Duke Behnke/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

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A vehicle passes by as a pedestrian uses a marked crosswalk with warning lights flashing along College Avenue in front of Lawrence University in Appleton. Surveillance cameras have been installed at two crosswalks. Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.(Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

Pedestrian fatalities increased sharply in Wisconsin in 2017, mirroring a national trend and raising concerns over risky behavior by drivers and walkers, state transportation officials say.

“It’s a multi-faceted problem,” said David Pabst, director of the bureau of safety for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

There were 59 pedestrian fatalities in the state in 2017, up from 49 in 2016. Nationally, pedestrian deaths skyrocketed by 46 percent since 2009, it was reported last week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In 2016, the latest year for which national data is available, nearly 6,000 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roads.

Pabst said pedestrian deaths have been trending upward since 2009, when 35 people were killed. The number of deaths increased to 54 in 2010 and 57 in 2011 before dropping back to the 30s and 40s until 2015, when the death toll rose to 54.

“We knew (pedestrian deaths) were going up,” Pabst said.

Addressing the problem is difficult, given the rising number of impaired and distracted pedestrians — and drivers who refuse to yield to pedestrians or brazenly drive through red lights.

Some pedestrians put their lives in jeopardy by being intoxicated, Pabst said.

“We’re getting our message across to the drunk drivers, but some people leave their cars behind and walk. Now, you have an impaired pedestrian.

“We need people to wake up … and say, ‘I’m impaired and I need to get a taxi home.’”